Be a Millionaire!

Hello fellow followers,

Time to make big bucks today!  Or at least pretend to.  That’s what I did to celebrate Be a Millionaire Day.  I found a website that has the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Game? and played it over and over again.  I never did win the million, but I learned a great boat full of random trivia.  Anyways, they aren’t that hard of questions.  I managed to make it to $125,000 on my best try, but I’m sure you’ll be able to make it all the way.

And now for the question of the day…  What would I do with a million dollars?

Truthfully, I’d probably spend it all on books, but if I was looking for something extravagant…

-          Fly to the moon

-          Visit Athens, Greece (and a lot of other places, but this would be the first stop)

-          Pay for college upfront

-          Buy a nice house AND a vacation home

-          Buy a sweet car (none in mind right now, but I’d come find something, I’m sure)

-          Get my own private jet (for all my travels, of course)

-          Hire a pilot to drive said jet whenever I feel like going someplace

-          Save the rest for retirement (cause I’m just frivolous like that)

As always, save on.  Compound interest does wonders, btw.  Just so you know.

 -      @

PS: TOMORROW: National Memo Day (of the fun we are going to have :] )

"The Headless Wonder Chicken"

Yo peeps,

I know I promised Pentecost and National Neighbor Day today, and while I did go to mass today, so I technically celebrated that, I found a different, more interesting topic to celebrate today.

HAPPY MIKE, THE HEADLESS CHICKEN DAY!

Mike, the Headless Chicken

No joke.

For those of you who don’t know Mike (and I was one of you just a half hour ago) he is a chicken who lived eighteen months after being beheaded.  Gross, but true.  He was study at the University of Utah in Salt Lake where it was discovered that, while chopping the head off, the farmer and owner, Lloyd Olsen, cut too high and missed the chicken’s jugular vein and most of its brain.  Seemed this was enough to save the poor chicken.

Mike eventually died from strangulation when his own esophagus wouldn’t open.  Every year, during the third week in May, the town of Fruita, Colorado, where Lloyd Olsen and Mike were from, throws a festival to celebrate the anniversary of this amazing feat.

Today, Mike is still featured in the Guinness Book of World Records.  Wonder why?

For more information, here's the history of Mike.

Long live Mike!

-          @

PS: TOMORROW: Be a Millionaire Day

I Love Reese's Day

Hiya out there,

Happy I Love Reese’s Day.  I tried to come up with something creative for this, but I couldn’t think of anything good.  So I ended up just sharing so Reese’s-Pieces with my mom when I got home from seeing the Star Trek movie, Into Darkness (which is good, by the way; totally recommend it).

So, yeah, that was how I celebrated today.  It is also Learn to Swim Day, but since I’m already part fish, I didn’t think this applied to me.

Sorry about the short post.  Hopefully I can write something longer tomorrow.

Countdown: 359 more days!

-          @

PS: TOMORROW: Pentecost, as well as Neighbor Day

Endangered Animals Day

Hi all,
For today, I'm going to post a couple of pictures of endangered species from the Endangered Creatures website.  An endangered creature is an animal--or plant--who's population is dwindling either because of poaching (illegal hunting) or it's habitat is being destroyed.  Some of these you may recognize, others maybe not so much.  But there is a whole list of animals who that are endangered.

Alligator Snapping Turtle

Bison (American)

Cheetah

Donkey Fish

African Elephant

Giant Panda



Indian Spotted Eagle

Hairy Nosed Otter

Obviously, this is just a few of the more generic ones.  But to find other more obscere ones, check out the link above for the entire list.

Happy Endangered Species Day! 

- @

TOMORROW: I Love Reeses Day

Biographer's Day

Hi guys,

So today is biographer’s day, and I know I promised you a short entry about my life’s story.  But I’m a writer, and short just doesn’t go over well with me.  So instead of that, I’ve just composed of list that’s all about me.  Enjoy, and don’t judge.  J

Name: Alissa Thielges
Nicknames/pseudonyms:  Sparky, Hotshot, Alia Bates (pen name), Smily, Nerd (said in a loving way of course.)
Birthday: August 17
Family: Older brother, Tyler.  Mom (Kelli) and Dad (Alan)
Pets: once had a goldfish called Tiger, but he was boiled (long story short: we went on vacation and my dad forgot to keep the air conditioning on.  It was a long, hot week.)
Job: currently working at Hy-Vee Chinese
Monumental life moments: Had braces from 3^th-6^th grade; got glasses in 7^th
Activities: Teen Advisory Board (TAB) at the library; other than that, nothing much—I am more bookish than sportish.
Favorite Color:  Cerulean blue.
Favorite Animal:  Snow tiger.
Favorite Foods:  mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, mint and chip ice cream, Cocoa Pebbles mandarin oranges, strawberries, pineapple, pickles, Dr. Pepper, laffy-taffy, sixlets, and Canadian bacon pizza.
TV shows I watch religiously:  NCIS, Gilmore Girls, Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Arrow, Whose Line is It Anyway, and Big Bang Theory.
Books I’ve read more than once and still love:  Sleeping Freshman Never Lie, Gallagher Girls, Hush, Hush Series, The Dark Divine, Unearthly, Easy, Obsidian, Every Other Day, Shadow Children Series, Sarah Dessen books
Life Quote:  Swearing’s for people who can’t think of anything intelligent to say.
Place I want to visit someday:  Athens, Greece.
Top fear: Needles.  Hands down.
Random other things:
  - I have never moved.
  - I’ve been published in two anthologies.
  - I was held back in pre-school because I was too much of a “follower”
  - I hate vegetables.  EXCEPTIONS: lettuce and raw carrots
  - I’m an obsessive saver.  I hate spending my money.
  - It the little things in life that make me happy.  Example: I love finding pennies on the ground.
  - I am most definitely NOT a morning person.

And as always, Happy Biographer’s Day!  Write on.

-          @

 

Chocolate Chip Day + Straw Hat Day

Hello dedicated followers,

I was feeling extra ambitious today, so I decided to tackle two of the celebrations listed today.  Chocolate Chip Day I had already planned on doing, so that was the one I celebrated first by sharing some chocolate chips with my big bro.  He was all too happy to help me.

Later, I had gone to a bonfire out at a family friend’s house with a bunch of classmates.  We roasted hotdogs and brats and made s’mores with gigantic marshmallows (think baseball size—no joke).  Since I don’t prefer graham crackers, I used two chocolate chip cookies for my “s’more”.  (To which one of my friends promptly commented, “Hello diabetes.”  Thanks Nick.)  It was delicious.  So I was able to satisfy chocolate chip day in two ways.

The other celebration I wore TO the bonfire a top my head.  When I got there, I proudly announced “Happy Straw Hat Day!” to everyone.  Someone then stole it off my head, but I got it back later as well as a little revenge.

All in all, I can check off these two items off my list.  Four celebrations in three days.  I am well on my way.  362 more days.

-          @

TOMORROW: Biographer’s Day (stay tuned for my life story :] )

Chicken Dance Day

Hello fellow followers,

Today turned out pretty decent, although it didn’t start that way.  First of all, I had a pre-calculus final in one of my classes, which I was dreading.  Then I had work which just dragged endlessly by.  The only good news is that I don’t have homework, so yay for that.

But none of this is why you are here, is it?  You’re probably thinking, When did you do your Chicken Dance? since that is the title of this blog.  Well, I will say that after this very long day that I was almost too tired to even follow through on my goal… *gasps*

But luckily, I have an awesome mom, whom I told about my ambition.  She convinced me, after coming home from work, when I was ready to just flop down on my bed and pass out, to dance like a chicken.  And, because she just so awesome, she joined me.  XD  Isn’t she just great?

So I got that accomplished.  The sweet thing is that my mom had mentioned earlier in an email to her boss, jokingly, if she—her boss—had done her chicken dance.  She replied back: Doing it right now!  I have no idea if she was telling the truth, but I like to think I had spread a little chicken-loving to my mom’s co-workers.

*fake shouts* It’s a revolution, people!

So the question of the day is: Hhve you done YOUR chicken dance?  If not, grab a partner and get going!  (Btw, don't follow the moves the chicken's moves in the YouTUbe video; he's doing it wrong.)

Cluck on!

-          @

TOMORROW: Chocolate Chip Day

Frog Hopping Day

HAPPY FROG HOPPING DAY!

After school today, I got my haircut (which I love :} ) and then went over to my best friend’s house to make our senior crowns.  Halfway through, I remembered what day it was, so I told her to stay in the living room while I went into the kitchen, the next room over.  Coming back, I frog hopped my way over to her.  She nearly fell over with laughter.  “That was the greatest thing ever!” she said.  I smiled, but I didn’t know if that was supposed to be a compliment or not, because, frankly, one can’t really frog hop with dignity.  It just doesn’t happen.

Also, frog hopping hurts the knees.  Just FYI in case you were thinking about a future career that involved it.

I also frog hopped for my brother.  He didn’t find it as amusing, but then he doesn’t find much that amusing.  He was also playing Assassin’s Creed so I didn’t take it too personally.

As far as first times go, I think my first celebration/recognition day was a success.  Check this one off the list.  *check!*  Only 364 more days to go.

Hop on!

-          @

TOMORROW: Chicken Dancing Day

Senior Project

Hello everyone!
I’ve decided recently to do a project for my last year of high school.  But first, before I get into that, a little background:

I was researching the web a little over a week ago when I came across a website (url below) that listed the days and what was being celebrating on each one.  Always haven been a little interested in such a thing, I took a look, and ended up spending two hours on the website looking at all the days, past and upcoming.  (Side track: anyone else have this problem?  You click on something, planning only to take a quick glance, and end up wasting your afternoon on that site?  Always seems to happen to me.)

While looking at the pages, I got a thought in my head that some of the “national” days were everyday things that could be celebrated.  And BAM, I had an idea.

So here is my mission (and yours too, if you choose to accept): every day has something to be celebrated, most of them having more than one.  Each day I want to celebrate at least one of the “holidays” listed.  To prove I have done it, I have to celebrate it either with or in front of someone else.  (Example: for Frog Jumping Day I’d have to frog hop in front of someone while wishing them a Happy Frog Jumping Day.  For National Chocolate Chip Day I’d have to share some chocolate chips with someone, etc.)

Of course, since I’m blogging about this, everyone reading is welcomed to join me.  I’ll be doing just one to the things on the list; you can do one of the others.  Or you can just check back each day to see what I end up celebrating.  ;]  This link will bring you to the website I use so you can follow along and see what other days are coming up.

I’m pretty excited about this whole thing.  Hopefully I can keep up with each day and keep you guys informed of my progress.  I’ll be getting out of school soon for summer, so that should free up some time.

Anyways, I leave you with that.

Signing off!

-          @